The Coin
by HopelesslyFictional
Summary: A little one shot centered around that coin Nick Miller keeps in his pocket.


**Hey everyone :) I've never written a New Girl fic before but I've been obsessed with Nick and Jess for too long now. I've been getting back into the fanfic spirit and I figured I might as well try my hand at a Ness fic.**

**Any and all feedback is terrific and much appreciated. **

**Thanks for reading! **

"That'll be $7.25, sir."

He tugged at his pocket and yanked the crumpled money wadded there free. Pawing through the money several times over, Nick discovered that he had exactly seven dollars.

Cursing himself under his breath and patting his pockets front and back, he felt nothing more. Except for the grooved edges of an all too familiar coin. He slipped the quarter out of his pocket and rubbed it between his thumb and pointer finger.

It was the exact amount he needed for his purchase and there was no reason not to hand the quarter over to the cashier, right? After all, he and Jess had broken up; they split ways amicably. They were still friends. But they weren't together anymore. And wasn't it creepy that Nick had still kept that quarter in his pants pocket after all this time?

_You regularly forget to wash your pants, Nick, _he thought to himself. _You can't remember to put the cap back on the milk and you can't remember that the door leading out of the apartment building is a push door. But you always manage to keep that damn coin in your pocket. _

He couldn't keep holding onto something as menial as a coin just because he missed her, just because it reminded him of the night he tugged on her pink robe, grabbed her arm, spun her around and kissed her until he was sure they were both seeing stars.

He couldn't keep holding onto the coin that reminded him of the way those big blue eyes looked into his before they fell asleep at night, wrapped comfortably in each other's arms. The coin that reminded him how he would look forward to getting off his shift at the bar because he knew he would be coming home to her. The coin that reminded him how it felt to say "I love you" and truly mean it for the first time in his life. And the coin that gave him the freedom to say it whenever he wanted.

The coin, Nick realized, was just a beacon of hope, the only thing keeping him from realizing that they might be over for good. How was a stupid coin keeping him from losing it?

"Hey, buddy, hurry up, why don't ya? Some of us have places to be!" The frustrated voice of a fellow shopper brought him out of his concentration. Nick looked up, taking in his surroundings, realizing that he was the idiot standing in the middle of a convenience store clutching a quarter in his hands.

"Sir? Did you find any more money?" The cashier asked pointedly, glancing questionably at the quarter in Nick's hand.

* * *

><p>"Oh, hey Nick! Did you remember my tea? I'm really running low and I'm probably going to be up late grading these papers."<p>

Jess looked up smiling, flashing those blue eyes in Nick's direction as he walked through the door.

"Yeah, Jess. Got it right here." He motioned to the counter where he sat the tea box down. "I have the night off tonight, Jess, so if you need any company while you're grading, I'll be around."

Nick turned toward his room, but stopped when he noticed the red dress wrapped perfectly around Jess's figure. He always admired the way she could look so beautiful with such little effort. He knew she was running late today. She had complained about there being no hot water this morning and how she barely had time to make herself look presentable. And yet here she was, looking more beautiful than ever.

"And Jess?" Her blue eyes found his again, looking up with concern. "You look really nice today."

She opened her mouth, her voice hitched in her throat. She searched for a "thank you" but her brain felt fuzzing.

"I'm gonna go shower now." Nick headed toward the shower, turning just before Jess flashed him a sheepish smile and looked down with her cheeks a rosy red.

Schmidt was just leaving the bathroom when Nick caught him by the arm.

"Hey Schmidty, you mind if I use some more of your shampoo? I won't use the fancy kind, just a little of the kind you use on weekday afternoons."

"God, Nick! Didn't you just go to the store _to get shampoo_? How do you screw that up, Nicholas?"

"Sorry, man. You know me… I didn't have enough money to get everything…"

"Ah, I know the salary of a bartender is basically next to nothing. Fine, you can use it… but not too much, and only because I don't know when the last time you washed your hair was and we need to start keeping a clean aesthetic around this loft; it's practically crawling with filth these days."

Sighing, Nick headed toward the bathroom and deposited his clothes on the bench by the shower.

He stepped into the unusually hot shower and allowed the warm water to encompass his body, breathing in the smell of Schmidt's scented shampoo.

* * *

><p>Jess stepped into the steam-filled bathroom to retrieve the jacket she'd left there earlier.<p>

Seeing the yellow cloth peek out from underneath Nick's discarded clothes, she tried to move them aside as to not disturb Nick in the shower.

She picked up his worn out jeans to move them when something caught her attention. Just above her hand, in the right pocket of his pants, there it was. The outline of that coin. The coin that he professed to keeping with him since the night they first kissed, the coin that he promised to always keep on him.

And just like that, Jess forgot all about the jacket, depositing the jeans back on the bench, and walked back to her grading with a huge smile plastered on her face that she guessed would remain there for the rest of the day.


End file.
